ProBoPat is participating in Colorado Gives Day on Tuesday December 6. We encourage all members of the IP community to consider a donation to support this valuable program providing pro bono patent legal services to low income inventors.

Attorney Discipline Cases Before the Presiding Disciplinary Judge

Please join the IP Inn of Court and the Colorado Bar Association IP Section for an ethics CLE featuring Judge William Lucero, Colorado’s Presiding Disciplinary Judge. He will be presenting a CLE entitled Attorney Discipline Cases Before the Presiding Disciplinary Judge: An independent disciplinary tribunal ensuring public protection and guaranteeing due process. Judge Lucero’s presentation will provide an introduction to the Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge (PDJ), an overview of the disciplinary hearing system, and a discussion of other types of proceedings that come before the PDJ. Judge Lucero will be joined by Molly Kocialski, Regional Director of the Rocky Mountain USPTO, who will talk about ethical issues in front of the PTO. There will also be an opportunity for a brief Q&A session with Judge Lucero and Molly Kocialski.

William R. Lucero received his J.D. in 1972 from the University of Denver. He served in the Denver District Attorney’s Office from 1972 to 1990 and the United States Attorney’s Office from 1990 to 2001, where he supervised the Complex Prosecution Unit and the Appellate Unit. He then returned to the Denver District Attorney’s Office and served as Chief Trial Deputy until 2004, when the Colorado Supreme Court appointed him Presiding Disciplinary Judge. In 2002, Judge Lucero was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a past member of numerous committees handling professional responsibility matters, including the Colorado Supreme Court Grievance Committee, the Attorney Regulation Committee, and the Federal Committee on Conduct. He received the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association’s award for Outstanding Hispanic Lawyer of the Year in 1995.

Mollybeth (Molly) Kocialski as the Director of the Rocky Mountain Regional United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), since January 2016, carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and is responsible for leading the Rocky Mountain regional office. Focusing on the nine states within this region and actively engaging with the community, Ms. Kocialski ensures the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region’s unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.

Ms. Kocialski brings more than 20 years of intellectual property experience to the USPTO. Most recently, Ms. Kocialski was the Senior Patent Counsel for Oracle America, Inc, where she was responsible for managing an active patent prosecution docket and was also responsible for all of the post-grant procedures and patent investigations for Oracle and its subsidiaries. Prior to Oracle, she worked at Qwest Corporation and was also in private practice in both New York and Colorado focusing on intellectual property litigation for multiple high-tech companies while maintaining an active prosecution docket.

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ProBoPat is participating in Colorado Gives Day on Tuesday December 6. We encourage all members of the IP community to consider a donation to support this valuable program providing pro bono patent legal services to low income inventors.

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Please join the Colorado Bar Association Intellectual Property Section in hosting six of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Intellectual Property Attaches from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm on Monday, December 5th.

Based at U.S. Embassies and Missions around the world, the USPTO’s IP Attaches assist U.S. businesses with the intellectual property-related issues they confront in the international arena. Each Attache will provide a short overview of the key IP issues and concerns currently facing the countries or regions they represent and share program success stories. A reception will follow the presentation to give section members an opportunity to talk directly with Attaches about regional questions or concerns.

What: The discussion addresses how cybersecurity has become a legal issue falling squarely within the domain of the in-house legal department. We will address the various cyber threats and vulnerabilities, concerns related to IoT technology, development of a legal standard of care, government enforcement activity, breach consequences and preventative measures to help mitigate a cyber breach.

Cost: $35 for IP Section Members, $45 for the general public, and CU/DU Law students and government employees are free. Includes a catered lunch. You can register for the lunch by going to: http://www.cobar.org/Calendar/Event/sessionaltcd/PATENT120116. RSVP by emailing lunches@cobar.org before noon on Monday, November 28, 2016. When registering please let us know if you need a vegetarian or gluten free meal.
1 general CLE credit applied for.Cancellations after Monday, November 28th and no-shows will be billed for the cost of the program. Checks can be sent to the Colorado Bar Association, 1900 Grant St., Suite 900, Denver, CO 80203. Also, please call or e-mail your RSVP when sending a check. Checks should be made payable to the CBA.

Thank you!

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In XY LLC v. Trans Ova Genetics LC, Case No. 1:13-cv-00876 (D. Colo.), U.S. District Judge William J. Martinez reinstated a jury’s finding of willful patent infringement following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. The Court had previously overturned the jury’s willfulness finding in light of the Federal Circuit’s standard in In re Seagate Technologies LLC. In particular, the Court ruled that XY failed to show an objectively high likelihood that Trans Ova’s actions constituted infringement of a valid patent, the so-called objective prong of the prior Seagate test.

The Court has now ruled that “Halo abrogated Seagate’s objective unreasonable requirement,” and thus reinstated the jury’s willfulness verdict.

The Court nonetheless kept in place its prior ruling denying enhanced damages and attorneys’ fees given Trans Ova’s good-faith belief that the asserted patents were invalid.

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Cocona, Inc. filed a complaint for patent infringement against Columbia Sportswear and V.R. Corporation (which owns the North Face brand) on November 2. Cocona accuses the defendants of infringing U.S. Patent No. 8,945,287, titled “Active Particle-Enhanced Membrane and Methods for Making and Using the Same.” The complaint identifies claims 27 and 35-38 as allegedly infringed, which are addressed to a water-proof composition comprising, among other things, a liquid-impermeable breathable base material comprising a first thickness; a plurality of active particles comprising the second thickness; wherein, the active particles improve the moisture vapour transport capacity of the composition.

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REMINDER: Ethics Breakfast Roundtable with Will Covey, USPTO Deputy General Counsel and Director of the Office of Enrollment and Discipline*

*CLE credit will be applied for

The Colorado Bar Association Intellectual Property Section invites you to join Will Covey, Deputy General Counsel and Director of the Office of Enrollment and Discipline at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), for a discussion on ethics/practice before the Office.

As Deputy General Counsel and Director for the Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED), Will Covey is responsible for ensuring that the nation’s patent attorneys and agents are of good moral character and sufficiently knowledgeable to practice before the USPTO. Mr. Covey’s team of attorneys and other professionals develop and administer a registration examination designed to measure an applicants’ knowledge of patent law and practice. Successful applicants are registered to practice by OED. In addition, OED investigates complaints of unethical conduct made against individuals practicing patent or trademark law before the Office.

Mr. Covey has held a number of key positions in the USPTO including Acting General Counsel, and Deputy General Counsel for the Office of General Law. Mr. Covey was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2007.

Mr. Covey received his undergraduate degree from Fordham University (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and earned his J.D. from Fordham University Law School in 1991. He graduated from Harvard University’s JFK School of Government (Senior Executive Fellowship) in 2005 and the U.S. Army War College with an M.S. (Strategic Studies) in 2010.

Prior to joining the USPTO in 2000, Mr. Covey was a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. He also served on active duty in the Pentagon. He is currently a senior officer in the Army Reserve assigned to the Office of the Army General Counsel. He completed combat tours in Iraq (2007) and Afghanistan (2011) and served as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.